Obama rally set for 2 areas of Grant Park

November 03, 2008

The Grant Park Election Night rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will be held in two sections of the park -- a southern portion on the softball diamonds at Hutchinson Field for some 70,000 ticketed guests of the campaign and a smaller non-ticketed event farther north near the Petrillo Music Shell in Butler Field.

Security precautions and logistics have steadily whittled away the size of the crowd expected at the event. Where the gathering once seemed likely to swell on warm weather and high hopes for a hometown candidate, public safety officials doused expectations by restricting which parts of the park will be open and saying they would turn away people if the crowd was too big and unruly.

Still, Tuesday night's rally promises to lure 100,000 or more, and participants will have a standing-room-only chance at witnessing history.

Those who were able to get tickets will pass through heightened security but have a chance to buy pizza and hot chocolate steps away from the stage where Obama will declare victory or concede defeat. For those without tickets, at least one Jumbotron television and extra speakers will bring the event to Butler Field.

To get the throngs in and out, public transit agencies will run extra trains and buses. Though street parking will be banned over 2.5 square miles of downtown Chicago, extra parking areas will be carved out for visitors along CTA train routes, and parking garages downtown will remain open.

Officials urged people to travel light, to take public transportation and to expect security snarls.

There will be only one entry point for both parties in the park -- at Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue, said Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communication director Raymond Orozco. Entry into Hutchinson and Butler Fields will begin at 8:30 p.m.

If the park fills up beyond a safe capacity, people will be turned away, Orozco said, although he declined to say how many people would be too many.

"We don't want to give people coming down with false expectations," Orozco said. It wouldn't be like the 4th of July or the Air & Water Show.

"This is an unprecedented event," he said.

And that, officials have said, is exactly why they anticipate so many people will try to come.

Meanwhile, more than a few Obama ticket holders are looking to use the Grant Park rally for greater gain.

By 5 p.m. on Monday, there were hundreds of offers on the Chicago site for Craigslist.

Tickets were being hawked for as much as $1,000, in one case from a couple who said they needed the money to put "3 kids through college."

One ticket holder hoped to trade his spot at the rally for a ticket to a Bears game. Several men seeking dates asked young women applicants for photos. One man, seeking a woman 21-29, required a drink with him before and after the rally.